Drucker’s 1974 magnum opus, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, was the textbook assigned by my professor, Duane Webster, the longtime executive director of the Association of Research Libraries. Drucker’s book spoke to me on a very deep level. In 2008, three years after Drucker’s death at 95, I reviewed the revised and updated edition, Management: Revised Edition for USA TODAY.

And although I’m not teaching this year, I’ve been an adjunct professor at CUA for 20 years, and have taught several times in the 1986 classroom, Marist 213. As I pause to think back to that fateful semester, I’m struck by how differently my life would have unfolded if Duane Webster had assigned a different textbook!